No answers on future of Amherst office

Citigroup expects to eliminate up to 2,100 jobs in New York as part of its plan to slash its workforce by as many as 11,000 jobs, but the company wouldn’t say Wednesday how its back-office operations in Amherst would be affected by the cutback.

Citigroup employs about 1,300 people at its facilities in the CrossPoint Business Park, and its local operations have been a bright spot in the Buffalo Niagara region’s financial services industry, serving as a strong source of jobs for business and finance graduates from local colleges and universities.

While a bank spokesman declined to say how the cutbacks would affect those operations, he said less than 10 percent of Citigroup’s jobs across New York, including in its New York City headquarters, would be eliminated through the restructuring announced Wednesday. Most of those cuts will come from the bank’s operations and technology group.

Overall, Citigroup said it plans to cut about 4 percent of its global workforce of 262,000. The bulk of the cuts – about 6,200 – will come from its consumer banking unit, which handles functions such as branches and checking accounts.

The bank did not say how many jobs it will cut in the United States. About 1,900 job cuts will come from the institutional clients group, which includes the investment bank. More than half of those cuts will come from its technology and operations department by using more automation and moving jobs to “lower-cost locations.”

“These actions are logical next steps in Citi’s transformation,” said Michael Corbat, Citigroup’s chief executive officer, in a statement. “While we are committed to – and our strategy continues to leverage – our unparalleled global network and footprint, we have identified areas and products where our scale does not provide for meaningful returns.”

Citigroup also said it will sell or scale back consumer operations in Pakistan, Paraguay, Romania, Turkey and Uruguay and focus on 150 cities around the world “that have the highest growth potential in consumer banking.”

The cutbacks are expected to save Citigroup $900 million next year, and more in the following years, though they will be a drag on the company’s earnings during the fourth quarter, when the bank is expected to absorb about $1 billion in pre-tax charges associated with the restructuring.